September 7, 2003
Nine eleven -- two years later
Listening
Sessions Coming!
Now that the fall is here the church on Long Island is beginning a series
of listening sessions to help create a vision for the future of the
Catholic Church on Long Island. St. Brigid’s will be participating
in these Synod Listening Sessions soon. You can start by thinking about
the future...what would you like the church on Long Island to look like
(to act like) ten years from now? Pray and use your holy imagination.
Off
to College?
Hundreds of our parishionershave gone off to college -- either for the
first time or as returning students. At St. Brigid’s we like to
stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
August 31: Where the
Summer went
August 24: Lessons from
the Blackout
August 17: Here and
There
August 10: Surrender
August 3: Reaping Rewards
July 27: What's your
mission?
July 20: From a Deserted
Place
July 13: Nothing for the
Journey
July 6: God at Home
June 29: Going in Stages
June 22: Sommer in the Summer
June 15: Our Newest Priest
Ordained
June 8: The Feast of Pentecost
June 1: Beyond First Communion
May 24: Felicidades Manuel
May 18: Twenty Years Later
May 11: Bows for Peace
May 4: Upcoming Ordinations
April 27: One Heart One
Mind
April 20: Amazingly Graced
Days
April 13: Ashes to Palms
April 6:
God Embedded
March 30:
Pastoral Visits
March 23:
Turning Tables
March
16: Transfiguring Imagination
March
9: Beasts and Angels
March 2:
Lent and Imagination
Feb 23: Sorrow
Far and Wide
Feb 16: Saints
Feb 9: Columbia Lessons
Feb2: Giving At A Difficult
Time
Jan 26: Penny Power
& Catholic Schools
Jan19: Yet Another
Year
Jan 12: Stealing Jesus
Jan5: The Wise Still Come
From Afar
Columns from 2002
I’ve been having a tough time watching
the news lately. Car bombs in Iraq, suicide bombers in Israel, the slow
but steady killing and wounding of our soldiers overseas, missile attacks
on Palestinians, etc...each fresh story tears open wounds made two years
ago when terrorists took over four planes and crashed them into the Pentagon,
into the ground in Pennsylvania and -- closest to home on many levels
-- into the World Trade Center towers.
Our families, our society, our nation and
our parish still suffer from that cruel day. We collectively jumped to
the “terrorist conclusion” when the blackout hit for a day last
month. We were only slightly relieved to find out that it was Ohio’s
fault. ("Well it could happen because of terrorists!”) But besides
group jitters, we all know people who are still grieving, who are still
living through the “what-could-have-beens”, who miss their husbands
and wives, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters
so much.
That’s why I hurt so much to hear of new terrorist explosions ‘round
the world. The people who are blown away in these attacks aren’t
foreigners whose lives just vanish without a trace. We know too well that
these are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters whose families are just
beginning to live the horror of what we faced two years ago this week.
My heart goes out to them, and though I don’t know their names I
pray for their loved ones just the same.
I continue to pray for those whose lives
have been mangled by the terror attacks of 9-11. I invite you to join
together for prayer this Thursday at one of our regularly scheduled masses
(7am, 9am, 12:10pm) or our special evening mass 7:30pm. Together we can
experience God’s comforting love; together we can pray for peace;
together we can uncover hope.
One more thing.... during my vacation I witnessed
lesser terror in the living situation of people who were staying nearby
-- daily screaming matches, loud unreasonable and inconsistent demands
on their children, nightly battles that could be heard through open windows.
No broken bodies here -- just broken spirits. I pray for peace at home
too. As the song says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin
with me.”
You are Person
